


Nothing cannot become anything else but remain nothing

by kurojiri



Series: HP stories: 500 or less words [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hook-Up, M/M, Teen Angst, Tutoring, devastated Neville, playboy Cormac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 01:25:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16985493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurojiri/pseuds/kurojiri
Summary: The opposite happened. He cared for that brief moment, now he was just disappointed in himself.





	Nothing cannot become anything else but remain nothing

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Used: “If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.”―Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Cormac McLaggen and Neville Longbottom were not two people that often looked compatible or obviously shared many interests to have a sufficient acquaintanceship.

They didn’t. McLaggen was cocky, brash and far too open with his words. Neville was his polar opposite, he had always been mistaken as weak, shy and unnoticeable. They shouldn’t have much reason to speak to each other, but they of course had been housemates. McLaggen was just one year older than him, and that had not wasted any material for them to never see each other.

They had in occasion seen each other in the Gryffindor common room, and Neville had been asked to help out with multiple students for Herbology. Fate just somehow worked in strange and mysteriously horrific ways for McLaggen to sit in the same room with Neville. They did not like each other when McLaggen opened his mouth.

Neville still helped him study because both their Head of House and Professor Sprout asked him nicely.

He knew it had been a horrible mistake to agree for McLaggen to treat him to a butterbeer when he aced his following assignments since Neville helped him. But he surprised him the way McLaggen had been kind to him that Hogsmeade day. He showed him the side he used when he picked up girls. It had unnerved Neville when he made him laugh until his stomach hurt. And it had hurt when he kissed him.

Neville had always been a kindred spirit; and when he allowed for McLaggen to get a taste he immediately regretted it the next time he saw him kissing another (prettier) girl.

Nobody said anything to Neville.

And he had been fine with it. (He just hated how someone, anyone, at this point, could just say a few compliments, and he would swoon.) Neville didn’t help McLaggen the next time he asked for help.

Professors Sprout and McGonagall didn’t force him to reconsider, and he had been thankful.

Cormac McLaggen and Neville Longbottom were not two people that often looked compatible or obviously shared many interests to have a sufficient acquaintanceship.

And they would never in the future.

Not as long as Neville would protect his heart.


End file.
